Energy Problem Solved by New Nuclear Project

If scientists succeed in building an experimental nuclear fusion reactor and making it work it could solve the world's energy problems for the next 1,000 years or more. We are talking about a Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor which will be built in France at Cadarache in the south of the country. The reactor has enormous potential and could lead to the building of a prototype power station in about 30 years. There will be enough electricity to last the world for the next 1,000 to 2,000 years, so it is really quite important that it works. The idea for this reactor is that it should have an advantage over current nuclear reactors because it would be cleaner. It should not rely on enriched uranium fuel and it should not produce plutonium, which is a concern from a terrorism point of view.
Ian Fells, of the Royal Academy of Engineering in Britain and an expert on energy conversion says:

"The technology of this is the science of the hydrogen bomb. You take a couple of hydrogen atoms and you squeeze them together, you fuse them together, and they turn into an atom of helium and produce a great burp of energy. This is turning mass into energy as with Einstein's celebrated equation E=MC2 (energy = mass times the speed of light squared)"

The people who are working on the project seek to mimic the way the sun produces energy, potentially providing an inexhaustible source of low-cost energy using seawater as fuel.

Is this too good to be true? Hopefully not. If they manage to make it and it stands up to expectations, will we then say good-bye to the oil?

This blog is based on an article by Planet Ark.